Lessons in lunch

The nail-biting clearing process for the UK's universities and colleges is well under way. All over the country, would-be students are waiting to hear if they have secured a place at their chosen institution - will they get a "yes" from the college with the gleaming foodcourt, or have to settle for the one with the dreary canteen?

Sounds ludicrous? Certainly. No one would enrol in a college or university simply because they provide particularly tasty pizzas. Yet contract caterers are now out to persuade educational authorities that they should not overlook the college canteen when selling the whole institution to potential students.

In their sales pitches to bursars, leading firms such as Sutcliffe, Chartwells and Gardner Merchant are stressing that a glitzy student restaurant can help build the impression of a go-ahead modern establishment.

At the same time, contract caterers are homing in on the key issue facing educational institutions at present - shortage of funds. Grant aid to the educational sector as a whole has been shrinking dramatically over the past few years and, despite the emphasis placed on education by Labour, there are no signs that the new Government intends to pour money into higher education. So colleges and universities continue to face the challenge of managing their limited budgets as efficiently as possible.

Most college and university student and staff restaurants are self-operated, but an increasing number of establishments are coming to the conclusion that managing their catering operation is a chore they can do without. They are turning to outside firms to take over and, where possible, let them reduce the level of subsidy allocated to student feeding.

Sutcliffe claims to be the leader among contract catering companies operating in the education sector. The company has the catering contracts at 13 universities and 95 higher education and further education colleges, and in the past year has introduced its foodcourt-style Choices operation to institutions that previously had traditional refectories. An example is at Leeds Metropolitan University, which now has a US-style Stripes burger bar, Hampers sandwich bar, Zefferelli's pizzas, Jackets No Ties, the Tex-Mex La Cantina counter and a traditional Chef's Choice.

Rival Gardner Merchant is also hoping for a rapid expansion in the education sector, in which it holds at least 70 contracts. As well as the £1.5m-a-year turnover University of Bath contract, the company has the contracts at both Inverness and Aberdeen colleges.

Chartwells, set up by the Compass Group four years ago to target the education sector, also claims to be making inroads into the market. Business development director Peter Sulston says the company has about 60 further education and about a dozen higher education college contracts, including Kingston University and Birmingham University. He maintains that the market has tremendous potential for contract caterers.

"They need investment and they need branded food concepts," Sulston says. "Students today live in a branded culture in terms of the clothing they wear and the products they buy. Increasingly, the food they eat needs to be branded."

Brands placed within educational institutions by Chartwells include Pizza Hut and Upper Crust, Not Just Doughnuts and Stop Gap shops. The company has also developed concepts specifically for students, such as Mr Chips, Rice with Everything and The Humble Spud.

Sulston says the company is also conscious when rolling out brands that there are key differences in the audience at further education and higher education colleges. "On the whole," he says, "students at further education colleges still live at home, so they are going to get a meal in the evening, whereas at higher education colleges, students are usually living away from home and they are older."

It is not just the industry big boys which have a foothold in the educational sector, however. Particularly within the higher/ further education segment, many smaller independent firms hold catering contracts. An example is Everson Hewett, the London-based company founded by two former Sutcliffe managers. Last summer, the company saw off competition from 14 other firms to secure the prestigious catering contract at the London School of Economics.

Co-managing director Stuart Everson takes a completely different tack from his larger rivals, including his former employer, when he maintains that students are not desperately seeking a branded concept for lunch. "Their taste is just the same as anyone else's," he says. "Just because they're students, it doesn't mean that they only want to eat burgers, jacket potatoes and pizzas. We've found that a lot of bursars are looking for someone a bit more inventive with the food."

Everson maintains that his company's offer of a mix of traditional and ethnic meals is proving successful with the cosmopolitan target audience at LSE, and the average spend is coming in at about £2.30. "We are looking at the culture and type of people we are serving and trying to cater for their needs," he says. "We are not just giving them one brand, because you wouldn't want to eat McDonald's every day."

A major barrier to growth in the sector is the inherent reluctance within educational establishments to hand control to outsiders. Sutcliffe's Whitehead says that often the university board of management is worried about redundancies for catering staff, though their jobs are protected by law, and that meal prices may rocket, steered by a profiteering caterer.

"The bottom line," he says, "is we have to sell food to students at a price they will accept."